The long journey home to Borneo

This is the story of two of my dear friends, Bento and Is. They are orangutans and yes they indeed are

my friends. What they went through is a sad story but unfortunately theirs is far from unique. So many

of their fellow orangutans have had it even much worse. So what makes their journey so special? It is

what they and their upcoming experiences will hopefully represent. They are the first two adult male

orangutans of what we hope might be about 150 male, cheekpadder orangutans presently in less than

optimal conditions in captivity, that have virtually no chance on a better life without bars anymore.

So where are those orangutans and why are they there without much hope at present? Let me try to

explain myself and give you a storey of our plans that we hope will give new prospects for these gentle

giants.

Orangutan babies are very cute and are in desperate need of protection so they quickly attach to human

carers and are easily handled because of that. Adult females can be a bit unpredictable but are not as

strong as adult males, especially the ones with cheek pads that are almost double the weight of half the

number of other male orangutans that never reach this hormonally induced size with cheekpads and the

big throat pouch.

There are many of these big giants that people tried to release. Let’s keep it at that the results have been

less than satisfactory… Because of the low success in releases, the dangers involved because of their

immense strength and the special facilities needed for them, many of them are now waiting in extra

strong and normally small cages in rescue centers, away from asking eyes. There are also many of such

males in small facilities in the zoo world. The orangutan groups on display in zoos almost never have

two cheekpadders but do have several females and juveniles, so this has resulted in the “surplus”

cheekpadders.

I have personally spent countless hours up close with more than one hundred of these giants and I for

one know that they are suffering. They are incredibly aware of their predicament. And they literally

beg me to help them. And so far all I could do was sit with them, look them in their eyes, the window

to their soul. Sometimes we share some food, often I massage their massive hands or scratch the top of

their heads and the back of their rubbery cheekpads. But unavoidably I always have to leave them

behind again and they know it. But now I want to try something that undoubtedly will get some people

upset but that I feel I owe them. A chance to live in the trees again. How? On large, secure and forested

islands together with other giant males.

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Now orangutans are very peaceful beings but the dominant cheekpadders are the ones that are known to

sometimes enter in vicious fights about access to females. Sometimes this even has resulted in death of

one of the competitors. Mostly the loser withdraws and literally shrinks again, including the cheekpads

that start drooping woefully. So it will be risky to try to bring those big males together. These

orangutans not just fight about female orangutans but can also be attracted to human females. The

stories from the Dayaks are not fairy tales… So our approach will be to avoid any reason for

competition.

This means lots of space with lots of barriers limiting visibility when needed, it’s called a sizable

forest. Then they should always have enough good food on different feeding places to avoid fights

about that. Finally we avoid them seeing and interacting with female humans. We only place them on

these islands after careful socialization, guided by very capable experts, but that process I will explain

another time. Suffice to say that with Odom Kisar and Leo Hulsker, that share amongst them more than

70 years of working with orangutans and especially also with the dominant cheekpadders, they are in

the best care possible.

Back to my friends Bento and Is. Is (short for Iskandar, which is the name of the police that helped

rescue him) was a four to five month baby orangutan smuggled from Kalimantan to North Sulawesi in

a small box by airplane. Luckily the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue team found out and coordinated with the

local law enforcement agency and eventually at midnight on April 30, 2004, intercepted the smuggling

effort. The smugglers were already on the boat and we found not just Is but also two sun bear cubs and

a baby gibbon, all smuggled from Kalimantan on their way to the Philippines from the Bitung harbour.

This coming month we expect to receive more than one hundred more smuggled animals to be returned

from the Philippines to Tasikoki. Things have not improved and illegal wildlife trade from Indonesian

alone is a multi-billion dollar business that continues to wreak havoc to our Indonesian nature. Here is

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a picture of Is when he was at Tasikoki and we still had hope that we would be able to send him back to

an orangutan reintroduction center in Kalimantan.

Bento was not destined to be smuggled abroad. He was a three to four year old pet brought over from

Kalimantan by a medical doctor that had moved to Manado. It was exactly a year after we rescued Is

that during the visit of a local school group one of the students mentioned that his family also had such

a pet! The next day we paid a visit to the house and indeed discovered a very humanized Bento. The

doctor voluntarily handed over Bento saving himself a courtcase. Bento’s fate would have been very

uncertain when the doctor would still have had him a few years later growing into the cheekpadder he

is now… Several times I had to find out that such big, no longer cute orangutans are simply discarded

by the “loving” owners. Once I was a day late when we located the cage where we were told was a big

orangutan. There was a bad smell… The poor male had been killed the day before and was buried just

behind the cage where he had been locked up behind a big villa in the mountains near Bogor. Even

more outrageous, a new “cute” baby orangutan had taken its place in the very same cage! Sometimes I

can hate people so thoroughly that had I met the owner at that day I would not be able to guarantee that

I would be behind bars now…

Here is a picture of Bento, shortly after arriving at Masarang’s Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education

Center.

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Bento and Is where put together in a holding cage but were allowed to play outside in the trees where I

sometimes would join them for a little outing like in the picture here to the right, already some 13 years

ago. When growing up the two boys become much stronger while no center was prepared to take them

in in view of the great costs of repatriation and the many other orangutans in need of help that they

were dealing with. Bigger cages were built and every time the boys managed to break them down and

find ways to escape, honouring the orangutan’s reputation as the most cunning escape artists in the

world’s zoos.

Once the boys grew older Bento first developed his impressive cheek pads and Is was clearly the lower

ranking individual. But Is grew up and started challenging the leadership position of Bento. Sometimes

just wrestling games but getting more serious with the years. No amount of enrichment and care by

Simon Purser, the at that time manager of Tasikoki, could change it. We even brought in touch screens

and tried to connect them with other orangutans in Kalimantan and zoos in other countries, but

eventually during the last year at Tasikoki, when Is had developed his own cheekpads we had to

separate them.

The characters of Bento and Is are very different and I could write a book about all their adventures but

I want to get back to their move back to Borneo. For many years I had been pondering ideas on how to

give Bento and Is a chance on life in the trees again and with them so many other giants like Romeo,

Bujang, Papa and so many other dear friends. When I met Hashim Djojohadikusumo and was asked to

develop a huge reforestation project for him in East Kalimantan that day arrived. He is an animal lover

and through his environmental foundation allowed me to build a special socialization facility for these

giants. Leo Hulsker a long time friend of mine and the orangutans came up with a design that is now

part of the Arsari Orangutan Sanctuary.

So finally in October with a brand new orangutan clinic in Kalimantan, a state of the art orangutan

socialization facility and access to several forested islands of hundreds of hectares large, the day

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arrived that Billy Lolowang and Simon Purser loaded the specially build stainless steel transport cages

on the truck that was to undertake the several day journey to the harbour of Palu in Central Sulawesi

from where they crossed by ferry to Balikpapan to drive the last three hours from there to the Arsari

Orangutan Sanctuary. I will let the following pictures give an impression of the move to their new

home.

The cages with Bento

left and Is on the right

are loaded. Is destroys a

wheel.

Food was the only way to keep

both boys a bit quiet during the

four days of the transport.

Durian!

The huge truck bringing

the boys

The harbour to catch the

ferry to Kalimantan.

Sadly we saw that this

police boat was

smuggling protected

birds!

Leaving Sulawesi for Kalimantan

All pictures by Simon Purser in

the picture on the right.

Balikpapan coming into

sight!

The last stretch of the

journey

Moment that Bento and Is arrive at the clinic compound near

Balikpapan.

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On the left the moment

that Rajuli, our

paramedic is openting the

door of Bento’s transport

cage to let him enter the

new temporary facility

where he will spend time

to get to know some

other big orangutans

before they will move on

to the final island forest

with many feeding

platforms.

Simon Purser putting Is

as ease after arrival in

the holding area.

On the right, Bento was

right away very much at

ease in his new facility,

exploring all corners.

Odom the project

manager with me in front

of the poster to welcome

Bento and Is.

Noldi our Tasikoki

primate carer from

Tasikoki, meeting with

Mr. Hashim, the sponsor

of the move. On the

right saying goodbye to

Is.

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The transport had been exhausting for the staff and stressfull for Bento and Is. But it was remarkable

how quickly both people and orangutans recovered. Still we wished the Indonesian airline Garuda

would still have flown the route Manado – Balikpapan so we could have avoided this cumbersome trip.

Nevertheless the arrival of Bento and Is gives real hope for a long term solution for those big

“unreleasable” orangutans.

After Bento and Is successfully entered the new facilities the journalists had lots of questions. In the

background Bento watching from the huge facility.

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Bento contemplating like a wise buddha in the morning sun.

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I just learned about this comic book about Bento that was written and drawn by an old school friend of

my secondary school in The Netherlands, Wilma van den Bosch. I guess I have to tell her that there

might be new adventures about Bento to write about!

After the busy days the

team (from right to left:

Odom, Leo Hulsker,

Rajuli, Echa and myself)

will have time to work

with Bento and Is.

Already we have seen the

first signs of peace

making between them,

sharing food with each

other through the bars!

Fingers crossed!

Willie Smits, Arsari

Orangutan Sanctuary, 9-

11-2019